Find Me Here!

I’ve got to go away for a little bit. There’s some personal stuff IRL I have to deal with. Don’t know when exactly I’ll be back, but I will be back eventually. I’ve been working on this project on and off since 2008, but sometimes I need a few months break from it.

Ah yeah, look at that. New theme.
Well it’s basically the same theme, I just changed the css. Mostly. The Archive page is completely different now, and expect the cast page to change some in the next few weeks.

Aaaaand we’re back. That was a nice break, hope everyone enjoyed their holidays.

I’ve got some good news and bad news.
The good news is really only good for me.

See, I made almost the whole first chapter of Deck of Fools when I was unemployed and out of school. I then went back to school last year, and in October I landed a full time job as a Web Designer Developer. This is great, it means I have food to eat, and a nice warm home. It also means I don’t have a whole lot of free time.

It used to take me, on average, three solid days to make a page. I realize that’s a little ridiculous; I’m not very fast. Now, with me working, if I take every bit of time I can spare to put into comic making, it takes me almost two weeks for the same page.

So, the bad news. I’m cutting the update schedule. Down to once a month.

I’m sorry, I know for anyone reading this that it’s a disappointment. But, this is my hobby. I don’t want to turn something I’ve truly enjoyed as a stress relief into a second job, which it has unfortunately started to feel like.

So this is how I’ll play it. Second Thursday of every month will be update day. We’ll see how it goes. If I manage to build up enough buffer I’ll think about adding a second update per month.

Chapter one is coming to a close so I thought I’d give you all a heads up that I’ll be taking a brief break to build up some more buffer before we start chapter two. I was planning about a month, but seeing as the last page will post on November 13th a month would put us at the 18th of December and right into the Christmas holidays.
As the first Thursday in January is New Years, I was thinking about debuting Chapter Two on January 8th 2015. It’s a little longer than I had wanted, and I hope you can forgive me for that, but I take this comic very seriously and want to make the best product I can.

Welcome to the new Look!
I guess I’m a Web Designer or something now?
This shiny new WordPress theme was made entirely by me! My first bit of PHP coding for a project. It’s a little wobbly around the edges, but I’m much more comfortable tweaking it now that I know what went into it. I ditched the Comic Easel Plugin since I wasn’t using more than ten percent, max, what it offered and just put in some post categories and custom loops. Pretty easy, but I had to re-make all the scheduled comic posts, which was irritating. I haven’t mentioned that have I? I made a huge buffer, Deck of Fools is all set to run through ’til October 16th in updates. Can’t slack off now though, I’ve a lot of course work to do.
Also! The Website! It’s responsive! You can read it on any size monitor and the whole thing will adjust!
You might notice that there’s some empty pages in the menu. Fear not, I’ll fill them up in the next week or so.
Thanks for reading!

I’ve struggled with how to describe this comic to people. Particularly when, in person, I meet someone who says something along the lines of “Oh! My (young) son/daughter loves comics, what’s the url?” How do I say “It’s an adult comic” without them automatically assuming I mean ‘Adult XXX’? I can’t say it’s for mature readers either, as that’s the same problem.

Thinking on it, I believe the problem stems from the fact that the only subjects we (at least in Canada) see as definitively out of the range of children are things of a sexual nature. Not saying that Deck of Fools doesn’t or will not delve into those topics, and the kind of “adult” I’m trying for includes them, but it is not so narrowly focused.

Way back in 2007, when I first began the narrative that would become Deck of Fools, the story was much heavier in the fantasy side than the drama. Over time, I feel the other has become more prominent, to the point that I’m unsure which genre should be the frontrunner. I don’t think this is a bad thing, I’m very pleased with my comic (why would I make it if I didn’t like it?), I do feel that it may be alienating to younger readers though.
But what do I know? It’s hard to analyse something you’re so close to. More probably, younger readers would like it, and I’m just too embarrassed to give the parents a link to something that contains (will contain) a significant amount of full-frontal nudity. At the very least, not without a disclaimer.

Which brings me back to the start. How do I pitch this? If I cant use “adult” or “mature” without invoking suggestions of illicit activities, what do I call it?